South Shore Sugar Plums: Local dancers get ready for 'Nutcracker'

Jody Feinberg The Patriot Ledger

Wednesday

Dec 5, 2018 at 5:05 PMDec 5, 2018 at 6:46 PM

Christmas without “The Nutcracker” is like Thanksgiving without turkey. Despite its challenging dance and production elements, the ballet is performed each holiday season not just by Boston Ballet and other professional companies, but by at least three South Shore ballet schools.

“It’s so entrenched that I can’t imagine the holidays without it,” said Marthavan McKeon, who has produced 10 Nutcrackers since she opened South Shore Ballet Theatre in Hanover in 2008. “It’s heartwarming to know that the Nutcracker is part of so many lives.”

In the South Shore Ballet Theatre’s production Dec. 15-16 at The Center for the Arts at Thayer Academy, the dancers perform the choreography of George Balanchine, the same one that McKeon danced when she trained at the Atlanta Ballet pre-professional program and then performed as a company member.

“We try to do as much of the original choreography as possible,” she said. “We’re training kids to be ready for a professional career, so they need to know the choreography.”

There are, of course, many ways to approach “The Nutcracker,” a fantastic story set to music by Tchaikovsky about a young girl, who dances delightedly when she receives the gift of a wooden Nutcracker at a party, only to feel despair when another child breaks it. Clara falls asleep and the Nutcracker comes alive, defeats an evil mouse king in battle and takes her to a magical kingdom. Other popular South Shore productions will be presented by The International Ballet Academy of Norwell and the Braintree Ballet Company Dec. 8-9, whose Sunday matinee is sold out.

“It’s a wonderful opportunity to bring holiday magic to people and to become part of a tradition,” said Melissa Kelley, who founded Braintree Ballet Company, which is performing the ballet for the 23rd year. “So many people grew up attending ‘The Nutcracker’ and really appreciate that they can see it locally.”

At the start of rehearsals in September, McKeon said she felt both fear and excitement.

“I always feel like I’m taking a leap of faith,” said McKeon whose cast includes more than 40 dancers from the school and 12 from outside the school. “I go ‘OK. I think they can do it,’ and off we go.”

The key to pulling off a high-quality performance is that the dancers spend weekdays in technique classes and rehearse only on Saturdays.

“We have them work like a professional would so that by the time they get to Saturday, they’re pulling from technique they’ve been working on,” she said. “We spend the time training, so that the performing becomes the icing on the cake.”

As many of her school’s teachers, McKeon once taught at the Boston Ballet School in Norwell, where students are also held to high standards. When the Norwell studio closed, she opened South Shore Ballet Theatre to continue that level of training for students who did not transfer to the Boston studio. About 125 students, ages 7 to 18 and about 30 ages 5 to 6, attend the school, which next year will move from Hanover to Weymouth.

“It’s not a school where you play around,” said McKeon, who teaches the national curriculum of the American Ballet Theatre in New York City. “By the time students come to my school, they’ve decided ballet is something they really want to focus on. But even if you’re a recreational dancer, we train you to be a good recreational dancer.”

At the same time, McKeon said she considers children’s emotional and physical development, making sure that they aren’t pushed so hard they lose their love of ballet.

“I want them to remember what they felt when they saw their first Nutcracker,” she said.

In the South Shore Ballet Theatre production, the decorated Christmas tree doubles in size to about 20 feet, and the dancers wear professionally-made costumes adjusted each year for different body sizes, which McKeon said she believes gives them a connection to each other and the history of the production at their school.

At The Center for the Arts at Thayer Academy, the dancers perform on a stage nearly as large as the one where Boston Ballet performs. The scenery is professionally designed projections from the theater’s state-of-the-art projector. McKeon said she believes the projections are an enhancement over the previous painted backdrops because they appear more three dimensional and convey movement, such as falling snow. The angled seats also mean that even small children will be able to see clearly, she said.

Inevitably, school productions can’t include every aspect of professional ones. At the South Shore Ballet Theatre production, the Polichinelles still dance, but there is no Mother Ginger from whose massive skirt they enter and exit. Since the South Shore Ballet Theatre didn’t have a throne, Clara watches the Sugar Plum Fairy, Waltz of the Flowers and Arabian, Russian and Chinese dancers as she sits on a sofa. At times, the dancers reach out to her and she leaves the sofa to briefly dance with them. Clara is danced by Tessa Neumann, 11, of Marshfield.

“In our version, it’s not just a show for her,” McKeon said. “She’s in a weird dream state, not totally in the dream or out of it.”

McKeon said she takes pride that parents of students, as well as audience members with no connection to the school, often are surprised. After consistently selling out the 500-seat theater at Thayer Academy for three shows, South Shore Ballet Theatre has added a fourth show for the first time.

“You love your child, and the child could be wearing a paper bag and you’d still love the show,” McKeon said. “So it’s really nice when people say, ‘It actually was very good.’ ”

One of the advantages of performing in a ballet school production is that many young dancers have challenging parts and the opportunity to shine.

“I’m amazingly grateful for the talent that walks through my door and that we have the privilege to teach these kids,” McKeon said.

Reach Jody Feinberg at jfeinberg@patriotledger.com. Follow her on Twitter@JodyF_Ledger.